Monday, April 21, 2014

Die Rotzz / The Bastard Sons of Marvin Hirsch split on Go Ape Records

These two are bound by more than just sharing this split. In checking out Die Rotzz's tripod page the bio section mentions Marvin Hirsch on bass. It seems that the B-Side is a skate punk duo of his bastard children. All grown up, making Dad proud....sort of.

I also noticed the guys in Die Rotzz were also in the Attack of the Cockface Killers. The movie equivalent of the scuzzy punk single, I'll take heavy doses of this homemade insanity of either kind any day of the week.

On the Die Rotzz side "Can't Stand It" has the sticks count off to hollow sounding guitar punk with scratchy high distortion. Sticking to the easily reached clusters they work a back and forth thuggy dynamic of blazing power chords and drawn out bent three note melody. Something of a Ramones rhythm, not with the vocal quality of Joey and a more amped up party heavy rock. The way those guys pushed surf harmony to its limit Die Rotzz are their southern swamp rock equivalent that's been cranked up into an uncontrollable riot. They're scrawny and mean sounding, nothing but thin scrappy skeletons, the vocals straining to meet the volume of everything else. "Rott & Roll" sounds like a different band completely, the room space is totally different and I wondered if they split this up with a song from each band on both sides? But it's definitely the New Orleans trio with a punk blues sound this time. Andy is howling, sounding like this track was captured live, Marvin on bass works that classic scale in the most mellow tempo they could probably manage. Guitar solos wreck throughout in your basic standard love letter to the thing you're playing. How many songs about Rock and Roll are there? This is Rott and Roll dummy. Holy shit their drummer Paul was in Angry Angles with Jay Reatard?

The B-Side opens on The Bastards playing "Lock Me Up" and what exactly is skate punk? It's a tricky thing to differentiate from any other punk I would bet and these two play and deliver vocals as snotty as possible with a narrow range distortion in a slow gut punch, begging to be locked up. That attitude says it all really, they aren't even satisfied playing on the record. The drums attempt a cavernous thickness but its the sound of a Suicidal Tendencies demo. I want to think these guys just got together, started a facebook page and then got to work writing a couple of tracks that made it on this single. Still wondering how they know Marvin but they've played a few shows with those guys. I really hope they actually are his kids and it's two generations of punks united on a 45. I'm getting emotional. "Skate & Destroy" gets the tempo plowing right along singing that title lyric over and over boiling things down to those essentials. You hope things won't be more complicated than that. Slow down the tempo for a sec, take a break, bang on the snare and get ready for that punk speed to come back. The literal sound of picking up instruments and being jerks for nobody but themselves. The story of every band. Record Store Day has me feeling sentimental.

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